1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a method of setting properties of an image forming device, and more particularly, to a method of managing the settings of properties of the image forming device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a driver is installed on a host computer connected to an image forming device to control the image forming device. The driver is typically a software program that extends an operating system of the host computer to support a device, such as a printer, and/or enables an application to use the device. The image forming device is an electronic device that prints images on a recoding medium, such as paper. Image forming devices include printers, faxes, scanners, and multifunctional devices having functions for printing and scanning.
A user sets various properties of the image forming device, such as printing preferences, using the driver installed on the host computer. In an example relating to a laser printer, the user controls printing preferences including a printing quality, a paper size, an orientation, a selection of tray, or usage of watermark using the driver. Properties of the laser printer are previously set for general use to a default setting when the laser printer is first produced by a manufacturer. However, various settings of the properties of the laser printer are needed to satisfy the user's use requirements of the laser printer. Accordingly, the laser printer provides various ways for changing the properties and storing the changed properties of the laser printer. After the user changes the printing preferences, the setting of the changed printing preferences is stored with a unique setting name. The user can easily restore the changed printing preferences by recalling the stored unique setting name. For example, when the user prepares a letter to send to the United State of America, the user changes the paper size to a letter size and sets the orientation as a portrait. After changing the printing preferences of the laser printer, the user stores the changed printing preferences as “letter output.” Whenever the user recalls “letter output” setting using the driver, the driver automatically sets the paper size to the letter size and the orientation to the portrait.
FIG. 1 is a view of a conventional user interface of a driver for an image forming device to illustrate a conventional method for setting properties of a laser printer.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the conventional user interface includes a user setting group selection menu 1 for selecting one of stored user setting groups, a managing button 2 for managing a selected user setting group, and a printing preference selection menu 3 for changing printing preferences of the laser printer.
When a user installs the driver of the laser printer on a host computer connected to the laser printer, “default setting” is displayed on the user setting group selection menu 1. In the default setting, a paper size is set to “A4” and a type of paper is set to “normal paper.” The default setting is provided by a manufacturer of the laser printer by considering general uses of the laser printer. When the user wants to change the paper size to a letter size, the user selects “LETTER” from among paper size options provided in the printing preference selection menu 3 and the changed paper size is then confirmed by clicking the managing button 2. When the user alternately uses two paper sizes “A4” and “LETTER,” the user must load the driver to display the user interface of the laser printer for changing the paper size in order to use the printing preference selection menu 3 in the user interface. This is an inconvenient process.
Accordingly, the manufacturer of the image forming device generally provides an option for storing a setting of the printing preferences. That is, after changing the printing preferences, the user can register a user setting group including the changed printing preferences with a unique setting name by clicking the managing button 2. After registering, the user can restore the changed printing preference by selecting the user setting group with the unique setting name in order to reduce time it takes to change the printing preferences. Additionally, registered user setting groups provided in the user setting group selection menu 1 can be deleted and a newly created user setting group can be added by clicking the managing button 2. The managing button 2 is programmed to provide functions of adding and deleting user setting groups according to a state of the user setting group selection menu 1. For example, when the user selects one of the registered user setting groups in the user setting group selection menu 1, the managing button 2 performs the deleting function and “deleting” is displayed on the managing button 2.
The above mentioned conventional method for setting the properties of the image forming device allows duplicate user setting groups to be created. This is redundant and may confuse the user.
For example, when the user changes the paper size to “LETTER,” “unregistered” is displayed on the user setting group selection menu 1. This occurs, because the driver clears a previous setting of the properties of the laser printer and assumes that the user wants to register an additional user setting group including new printing preferences. After changing the paper size to “LETTER,” the managing button is changed to perform the adding function and “adding” is instantly displayed on the managing button 2. If the user clicks the managing button 2, a dialog box is displayed for entering a unique setting name of the additional user setting group with the new printing preferences. If the user enters “LETTER OUTPUT” as the unique setting name of the additional user setting group, the LETTER OUTPUT user setting group is stored by the driver.
The user can continue to use the default setting again for preparing a document in A4 paper size after storing the LETTER OUTPUT user setting group. If the user changes the paper size to “LETTER” and the orientation to portrait by using the printing preference selection menu 3 and then the managing button 2 is clicked, the driver displays the dialog box for entering a name of an additional user setting group with currently set printing preferences. By entering the name, the function of the managing button 2 is changed to the adding function and “adding” is displayed on the managing button 2. Accordingly, the user must register the additional user setting group. That is, the additional user setting group may be set to have identical printing preferences as the LETTER OUTPUT user setting group. Therefore, this duplicates existing user setting groups and may cause the user to have difficulties when attempting to select a user setting group with desired printing preferences. Additionally, the user must register un-wanted user setting groups, because the function of the managing button 2 unexpectedly changes to perform the adding function or the deleting function according to changes of the printing preference.